Rebecca Walton is the heir to the enormous fortune of Mafia boss, Vincent Scalabrese, much of which is held in secret foreign bank accounts around the world. She is immediately faced with the ethical dilemma of whether it is right to use ill-gotten wealth to accomplish great good for society. Ultimately she decides to fulfill Vincent’s dream of building a youth center and college in Boston. But she doesn’t imagine the powerful forces that will be working against her—Vincent’s family, the u...

Jack Wagner is a 17-year-old Texas boy who wants to join the Marines. He is from a Marine family. His grandfather, uncle and father were all highly-decorated Marines, who fought in World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. When his father was killed in Vietnam, Jack resolves to become a Marine himself, needing to understand what his father had thought and experienced and to complete the work that he started before his death in the Central Highlands. This remarkable story follows the ca...

Vincent Scalabrese is the godfather of the New England underworld. Seven years before, he had come to the aid of a young Boston lawyer, Rebecca Walton, who was about to triumph in her very first murder defense trial. It would change his life. Rebecca was the daughter he had always wished for—extremely bright, hard-working, adventurous, imaginative. They formed an immediate relationship that soon became almost that of a father-daughter. Now, Vincent is once more called to protect Rebecca, w...

This "Autobiography" is a random list of hundreds of events, adventures, experiences, and thrills of a life that has taken me to all of the U.S. States and Canadian provinces and to more than 110 of the world's countries. Perhaps a few of them will strike a chord of recognition from readers and they can join me in these "thrills". No list that I could write would even top the greatest thrill of my life-the gift of my incredible family of Mary, Nancy and Annie and their beautiful children, ...

Two mothers, on their deathbeds, one in Mississippi and one in the Bronx, New York, send their children to friends, asking their help to lift their children from the depths of grinding poverty. Three young children are introduced to a new world, where they succeed beyond their mothers’ dreams. Joshua and Ruthie Baxter escape from an isolated cabin in the Mississippi woods to enter a world centered in the Ole Miss community, as they fight to free themselves from the label of “poor white tra...

Rand Waller began his western experience as a guard on a Santa Fe Trail wagon train. His success as a merchant resulted in a fine life with his wife Carmen and two children. When they were tragically murdered, he escaped to the mountains, beginning a life of constant movement that made him one of the legendary figures of the West. A mountain man, an Oregon Trail guide, a river boatman, an adopted member of the Lakota Sioux, Rand found himself in almost every major event of half a century a...

He is a boy who has no friends in school, who refuses to take part in any of the normal sports and social activities. When his parents are murdered, he refuses to attend their funeral. Artemus Webb joins no clubs, forms no business partnerships, has no friends. He finds a wife with a newspaper ad. Can such a man survive in a world based on relationships? Confronting her attacker in a New Haven courtroom, Rebecca Walton parlays her victory into a promising law carrier. Her rise in the legal...

Mark Twain is high on the list of America’s great travel writers. His amazing life took him to more than 35 countries and two-thirds of the states and provinces of North America. Jack Dold has highlighted these travels with a series of journals describing unique tours conducted for the University of California, Berkeley, where the majority of Mark Twain’s writings are housed at the Bancroft Library. Those tours were all accompanied by Bob Hirst, the general editor of the Mark Twain Papers ...

Billionaire businessman Raymond Barksley is privy to a startling secretthat the earths core is heating at a rate that will result in the destruction of the planet. A deeply religious man, Barksley fears the destructive societal forces that will be unleashed when news of the catastrophe is broadcast around the globe, and he formulates a plan to allow mankind to end its days with faith and dignity. His vision widens into a global effort, drawing in political and religious leaders, community ...

It is the dream of every grandfather to be able to take his children and grandchildren on a travel adventure. In the case of the Dold and Schafer families and their close friends, that dream was fulfilled in an unbelievable way. They were able to watch their children and grandchildren grow over ten years while visiting nearly a dozen countries. Jack Dold weaves the story of those exotic travels with detailed accounts of the history and culture of the lands they visited. Travel along with t...

Boris Kastel was born in Zagreb, Croatia in 1914. A few months later the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated some 300 kilometers away in Sarajevo, an act which touched off The Great War. That catastrophic event presages Boris tumultuous life, during which he traveled to five continents and mastered at least ten languages. Throughout the violent war years following the Nazi invasion of his country, he never lost sight of his great dreama quest for peace. That quest had to wait through...

Some years ago, a Canadian travel campaign aimed at the United States described the country as The World Next Door. It is a spectacular place to visit, the world that is so close to us, filled with sparkling, friendly cities, incomparable natural areas, world-class museums and national parks, and lovely people who invariably welcome the visitor. Jack Dold, Director of Golden Gate Tours of California, takes the reader on a coast-to-coast tour, exploring nearly every facet of this beautiful ...